rudemedic

1.) Leeds- obvious really 2.) Rochdale- obvious really 3.) Tartlepool - If its not obvious by my location you need to go back and learn some UK geography 4.) Whoever we get in the League cup after Rochdale 5.) Whoever we get in the second round of the FA cup

We took around 2500 on NYD (i think- certainly don't think we took 3000) and there weren't any difficulties in non-season ticket holders getting a seat. This year can see us taking a few less to begin with. As its not over xmas with people around because of the holidays and think some people may be away on their summer hols. Plus a lot of people went last time because we hadn't played Leeds for ages in the League. Given that we can't give them the 4,500 seats we gave them last year it wasn't a surprise to see them give us less for their first home game. The smurf obviously thinks his fans will sell out that section of the ground better than ours and as I hate Leeds I hope they don't. I can see some people not being able to go if we only get 2000 seats (nevermind 1500) and its sad but I can't see the extra 500 or so making that much of a difference to the result if those that are there make as much noise as possible. A system to recognise those fans who go regularly to away games (and i guess home games too) without season tickets is a nice idea but one that is not practical considering it can't be too many people and a lot of those can get their hands on a season ticket if they had to, as would it cost the club a bit of money to sort. We are not Man U where most of our fans live closer to other football grounds than Mold Trafford. This is probably the only game where such a database would be useful, but next year that might change.

Wasn't Gregan playing for West Brom in the Prem then? (a class above what we could have realistically afforded and wanted to come to us) Alongside Chris Lucketti (now at Hudds)

I think both the club and Hillstones have been quite generous about this (Newcastle are still sponsored by Northern Rock). I haven't bought a new away shirt (don't have the 'new' home one either) but I think the club would be well within their rights not to offer a refund for it. We all laughed at PLC scum fans when because they got battered by the Saints their new away shirt was never worn again, but did PLC scum offer a refund because of a 'design' flaw did they heckers like. If people want to keep their never used shirts then that's up to them but Latics have again showed they have excellent customer service.

I think if we reach the play-offs Shez's job might be safe but if we don't he will be in trouble unless we have a better cup run than we did last year (TTA are businessmen first and football team owners second and a cup run could wipe out any debts we may have for the year). Shez will have had 3 full years in charge by the end of the season and most of the squad are players he has brought in (or were youngsters when he started), this is a critical season for him but I really do fancy the Latics to get promoted this season. It may be make or break but if i were to bet on one I'd say make.

The defence from that year would have been a good defence for what is now the championship nevermind this division and most of the players we struggled to keep when it all went tits up were the defensive ones. However when Wijnhard went missing/injured we struggled to score unless it was a set-piece and this is why we tailed off towards the end. When you are better than the opposition you need good forwards to get you a win when the opposition are playing for a draw and that year we just did not have the quality up front. This year we have better quality up front (provided they stay fit especially Hughes) and we now have a midfield that looks like it might be able to do something as opposed to being by-passed a lot. The squad from Dowie's year would have probably gone up in a lot of seasons but with Cardiff, Wigan, QPR, Bristol City and whoever went up automatically there was a lot of quality about which I think there is less of this year. Personally I'd take the Dowie squad by a nose, but I think this years may do better.

Millwall the number of days it is since they were relegated from the top flight

Forest- the number of days it is since they won their last trophy, the lucky so and sos

Nearly thought sod voting i'm entering (especially as I know I've got a better Sydney pic than what's in 2nd and i take a mean sunset pic) but then i saw what the prizes were and thought Nah I don't actually want to win one of those so i voted for yours instead.

This is not the worst idea in the world and should be worth a look especially as it seems that such a measure won't take much more effort and can be removed quite easily, plus it does look like the new stand won't be built for some time. As a former season ticket holder in the broadway side version (plus I used to sit in the ones that were in the main stand back in the day and I've been in the main stand side one once too) I can say it can be worth the extra money if you like staying warm, quite like the idea of a short bar queue but it is not the best place if you want a bit of atmosphere. As you struggle to hear the action (from the fans and the players) so ideal for a mid week game against no-one special in mid winter but for a crunch game against Leeds or a big cup tie I'd prefer to be in the stand singing my heart out.

Not sure about this either as Chambers has done his time, and lost his medals but due to a rule that it seems we are the only country to enforce he is not allowed to compete in the Olympics again. Plus isn't the 400m woman still eligible despite serving a drugs ban (albeit for a more minor offence). So it does seem harsh but I don't like cheats in any sport and feel he should still be banned from his first sport. However, can someone tell me who was the last 100m olympic champion to be clean throughout his career and the earliest I can think of was Allen Wells and no disrespect to him but he probably wouldn't have won if it wasn't for politics. So I feel its very harsh to give Britain's gold medals to another country when there isn't a 100% certainty that the other country was clean.

If Smalley stays fit next season I can see him featuring in a good proportion of games albeit mainly from the bench. He is a useful squad player as he can play on the wing and up front (wing being his best position IMHO) I'm surprised this is the first time he has been linked with a move as most of us on here know how badly he slaughtered Leighton Baines (a highly rated full-back) at Goodison last year. However, I'd be happy to accept £300k plus a sell-on clause and other add-ons for someone who is not quite a first teamer. A cheeky swap for Chris Armstrong might be a good idea as well. If the interest is serious and not just paper talk I can see the move happening, provided Deane can drive as I can't see him leaving Oldham just yet.

Despite it obviously being a Latics pub now you do still get armchair redsox filling the place if its a lunchtime game or if the Champions League is on midweek when we have a game. God help you trying to get served if we have a big game and the Redsox are on TV as well. Although it can be worth it to be there when redsox loose or have just been knocked out of something ala 'Almost in Greece' 15 months ago. If I go a pub before the game in Oldham it is usually the RR and I can't see it changing next year.

I wish them (and their family) all the luck in the world.

I posted this thought in another topic but in addition to the names above I think Carlisle might struggle this season, as they were by far and away the worst team i saw at BP (I did miss a few games so they may not have been the worst team). The got into the play-offs on the back of their home form which won't be as good this time around and having sold some of their better players I think they could surprise a few people by their poor finish.

Meh. Some ex loanee of ours is in the all-star MLS team this is not surprising considering that apart from the high profile names a lot of the MLS players would love to come to England where they can get paid a bit more due to salary caps. LA Galaxy actually had to play two guys from the administration department in a game (probably a reserve game) because of injuries, salary caps, and league rules about people not playing so many minutes in a week if under a certain age. Plus if its anything like the Baseball all-stars where every club has to have at least one then maybe he's the best from his bad team. However, if I was a player of a certain age in this country and I fancied getting paid the same for a lot less work then I would head to the states and Canada too. The good American's end up in Europe before long leaving only the dross and those more interested in getting paid so its not too much of a surprise to see someone from our level get this 'accolade'. Plus having seen the standard of Maltese football when i was on holiday there over easter the fact that Brian Talbot gets his team into Uefa isn't a surprise most of them would stuggle to get into Staylvagas's team. Plus I'm well gutted that I've only found out that Talbot was in Malta now, as if I had known he might have gottem some abuse of me.

I have no problems with points deductions for going into administration as the year before it was brought in Leicester used administration to make some shrewd tranfers moves, had the problem sorted out within a couple of months (Lineker stepped in if i remember rightly) and ended up promoted to the Prem. Last year the football league set the right precedent by adding on an extra 5 points to Leeds as they didn't leave administration by the football league rules and this year they've set the precedent that because Luton have been in trouble before twice they get an extra five points. This seems a bit harsh as its obvious why Luton are in trouble and part of it is due to other clubs in the league ladder (the entire Greedy League) and its not the fault of the current owners of Luton at all but think of it this way Leeds already have one strike out of three. The problem with clubs going into administration is it will always be the same sort of clubs and none of those at the top having a problem. For example, Man United's interest payments of thier debt would probably take care of the entire debt of all the clubs in administration but because Man united are marketable worldwide and make a ridiculous profit each year then they can be so far in debt as the banks don't see a problem with lending them money. (Although I wouldn't be so sure in the future with the current economic climate which appears to have hit the Yanks the hardest). Perhaps there should be a point where even if you aren't in administration you can be deducted points for running your club so far into debt. The agent thing is a slightly different matter. I kinda like the penalty (as I don't like agents) but maybe 10 points is a bit harsh and why are Luton being the first team punished in such a manner. Its obvious the likes of Man U, Bolton, and Pompey have done similar or close to it, otherwise the Beeb wouldn't have risked libel and the coppers wouldn't have arrested Harry. Plus didn't George Graham get banned for brown paper bagging an agent but Arsenal got nothing. Agent corruption is all over the league and if the league as a whole want to get rid of it maybe they should start at the top (instead of what is now 30 points adrift at the bottom) and what a better place to start than the current League Champions who have already been looked at for this before. I say Man U need a 10 point deduction.

Marshall is not that bad a player (saw him be lancs MOM at Durham last year- 40 summat plus 2 wickets) and I have no qualms about him bowling. However I feel he was let down by his captain. When you have 4 of the best seam bowlers in the country who are availible for the game it makes no sense what so ever not to bowl them out. This is doubled when you consider the kind of bowling Chapple and Cork produced at the start and if one doesn't bowl out I'd have said it should have been Mahmood. I'd have looked at bowling Hogg and some of the other part time seamers a bit more as opposed to spin. That spell of 3 overs (2 from Marshall and one from Du Plessis) costs Lancs the game as it gave Middlesex some time to turn the game around a bit which they then used to their full advantage. Oh well we'll just have to check the passports, birth certificates of every Middlesex player.

This was exactly the point I was going to make if we get promoted (or are doing well in Feb) it will be a lot easier to find sponsors. Hillstones have apparently already paid up for this their final year and this can mean we have longer to find new sponsors. Horners going into admin whilst possibly meaning we loose some money (if another sponsor isn't found) isn't the end of the world as I can't see the amount of money being significantly more than what we are paying someone like Kalala. Plus we now have even more advertising space availible as it would be fairly stupid not to have adverts all over any barrier where the 'broadway' stand used to be. Also what did Horners sponsor as I'm not sure? This is not the start of a crisis for Latics we do not need to sell any of our marketable talent unless an appropiate offer comes in. If we don't have a sponsor for something we feel warrants a sponsor maybe we could stick the name of a charity, ideally in memoriam of Ernie, where that sponsor was.

Football is getting more and more expensive for a fan of some teams but there has been very little increase in cost (relatively) for Latics fans. As mentioned previously the cost of pay on the gate has remained the same for the past 4 years and the price of accessories and sundires (shirt, programme, pie etc.) hasn't gone up a lot in that time either. How much extra do you think it costs fans of the bigger teams in those four years. However in those four years the cost of living has gone up a lot more but wages haven't increased by enough and I will agree that due to the cost of living football may be seen as a luxury that can't be afforded by a lot of fans. When Sky came into football at the start of the Premier League personally I thought it was a good thing (although i didn't get sky until we were out of it) as it meant there was more football on TV. Now with Sky paying far far too much money to show football on TV the situation has gotten worse. If sky, the beeb, ITV, Setanta and anyone else who wants to show football on TV said to the greedy League no we are not paying the price you want we are paying this price which we think is fair (bear in mind the Beeb is partially funded by the license payer but they don't have a say as to how much the Beeb pays for things). The greedy league would be almost forced to take it (after all the clubs make so much money on adverts because they are on TV). This would eventually mean that the ridiculous wages demanded by the top players in the Premier League are reduced and so the wage demands of those lower down the league ladder are also reduced. When the Portugese 'winker' is demanding more in a week than all but the very highest paid employees make in a year then life is wrong. Another way to stop the average gate from going down is to stop the trade of all those pubs which show games live on TV at 3pm on a saturday via an illegal feed from another country. I would reckon that a fair portion of this board knows the name of at least one pub which does this and if they stopped showing these games maybe those armchair red and blues fans might actually go to a game as opposed to watching one in a pub. One thing is for certain though in the current world economic climate something needs to change or a lot of football teams will go out of business but i think nothing will be done until a club that's actually in the Premier League goes into administration/out of business which seems highly unlikely.

This is very sad news and my (and my Dad's in his absence) condolences go out to all Ernie's family and friends.

Aside from the obvious Leeds, Leicester etc. I think a good outside bet might be Swindon. Peterbrough might be close to the play-offs but i can't see it and MK Dons will not have as good a year as some of the bookies think they will. At 9/1 for promotion (at Ladbrookes according to Oddschecker) though I think the best bet is ............ Oldham Since we were a little bit unlucky not to be in the play-offs last year and we have definately improved our squad with time (youngsters getting better) and some reasonable new signings. Interestingly Carlisle I think will really struggle and can see them going down as they were by far and away the worst team i saw at BP (I did miss some so its understandable that other people think different) and they got into the play-offs on their home form which won't be as good this time around. plus quite often a team that challenged the season before stuggles the year after.

Well pull yourself together then.

LOL, IC driving slowly whatever next a Brit winning Wimbledon. By the way IC is it worth you travelling that little bit further to go to Newton Aycliffe as I would guess diesel is cheaper than that at the Tesco there.

Up in durham the petrol prices are usually 1-2p per litre more expensive than those in and around Rochdale but there are some garages which are usuallly about the same price in Gateshead and Sunderland (often go to either place with 'work') so I get my petrol there when I can. I paid 117.9p/litre at my local Sainsburys the other day. Plus when in a lot of supermarkets you can pick up maps which have their store lisitings in and since supermarkets are usually cheaper than garages on longer journeys I quite often use these for example there is a Tesco in Garforth that I use now and then in my commute from Heywood to Durham